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Thursday, May 9, 2013

James Allison closing in on Ferrari move, but nothing signed yet

According to reports in AUTOSPORT, James Allision is very close to signing up for Ferrari in a senior technical position, but nothing is finalised yet.

There has been a lot of talk about the future of Lotus after they confirmed on Wednesday that Allision will be leavung Lotus and his successor will be the highly regarded Nick Chester. After many pundits took guesses at where Allision would be headed, Autosport fueled speculation that his move to Ferrari is imminent.

His future position with the Italian marquee is not yet confirmed but he will most probably move in to work along with current technical director Pat Fry. If the talks are successful, then Alision will be returning to the team where he spent five years from 2000 during the teams most successful spell.

With no deal yet and with non-disclosure agreements in place over the discussion, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was cautious abut what he would say. In an event in Maranello on Wednesday, the Ferrari boss said, "I don't know any truth in that. I must deny it."

However, di Montezemolo later said: "We will communicate when there is news to say, but not where there are rumours."

Allison is one of the most highly-rated technical designers in F1 and he has been the target of several teams in recent months once it was known that his contract at Lotus was coming to an end later this year.

McLaren who have felt the loss of Paddy Lowe, tried to engage the services of Allision but were declined, while Williams also threw their hat in the ring to try and get the Englishman to work for them.

His leaving Lotus seems to have dented the chances of Kimi Raikkonen adding to his tally of world championships.